Willow Glass, as Corning calls its invention, is about as thick as a sheet of copy paper. It bends like plastic. A picture on Corning's Website shows a green-gloved hand bending Willow Glass into the shape of an upside-down U.

The malleability, and thinness, of the glass means it most likely will be used to make smartphones and tablets thinner and lighter. The glass can even be wrapped around devices or structures. Already, Corning's Gorilla Glass is used in 750 million devices, including the Galaxy S III smartphone from Samsung (005930.Korea).
Apple's
AAPL -0.0361763111007824%Apple Inc.U.S.: NasdaqUSD129.0433
-0.0467-0.0361763111007824%
/Date(1425417760404-0600)/
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
31406339
P/E Ratio
17.281124497991968Market Cap
751916704040.229
Dividend Yield
1.4563482841428461% Rev. per Employee
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(AAPL) iPhones also reportedly use Gorilla Glass. Maybe Corning's customers will use Willow Glass in new devices.

ALTERING THE BASIC NATURE of glass seems like an epic milestone with limitless possibilities. Yet Corning's stock (ticker: GLW) has barely budged since the news was released at the Society for Information Display's meeting in Boston. The yawn shows how little investors think of Corning. Shares are down 3% in the past month, and down 30% in the past year.

The possibilities of Willow Glass, coupled with Corning's somnolent stock price, are alluring. It could take several years for the Willow Glass investment thesis to blossom, but the risk is mitigated by the stock's 2.4% dividend yield. The dividend is dependable. It could be increased.

At around $13, Corning's stock is so inexpensive that it can easily be bought by almost anyone. But investors can enhance the purchase by selling puts.

With the stock at $12.83, investors could sell Corning's January $12.50 put to collect $1.31. If the stock slides below $12.50, and the stock was put to investors, they would buy it at an effective price of $11.19. The stock's 52-week low of $11.51 was set last October. If the stock advances, the money received for selling the put can be kept.

BUYING A STOCK WITH GOOD prospects at a low price always seems attractive. The risk never seems great—but this trade has risks. If Corning's shares turn sharply lower, anyone who sold the put is buying the stock at the put's $12.50 strike price even if the stock is at $5. In January, Corning's stock slid sharply when fourth-quarter earnings revealed glass prices declined.

Business seems to be improving, or at least stabilizing, based on late April's first-quarter earnings. Corning is expected to report earnings July 22, which could provide an important opportunity to highlight how Willow Glass represents a new chapter for the company and smartphones, TVs, and tablets like Apple's iPad.

Even if the Willow Glass trade thesis proves wrong, the sting is offset by Corning's 2.2% dividend yield. In essence, investors can park cash in a relatively low-risk stock whose yield exceeds the 10-Year-Treasury's 1.5%.

Should Corning disappoint investors yet again, shareholders probably will pressure management to use its $3.7 billion cash pile to increase the dividend and buy back shares. The cash equals about 19% of the company's $19.5 billion market capitalization, and spending just a fraction of the cash pile could convince almost any investor that Corning's glass is half full.